Archive for August, 2018

Who’s Your Local Preacher?


The word “colorful” is a massive understatement when considering the collection you just scrolled through.  “Cyber Sound” is one of the newest art additions to ‘Local Preacher’s photography collection, and as aligned with the rest of his work, it is AMAZING.  As a DJ, it’s incredible to see the tools I use being so eloquently portrayed in such amazing photos.  Shouts to ‘Local Preacher’ and his amazing ability to use lighting to exemplify the intricacies of the gear myself, and everyone else who does what I do in his work.

The Geography Of Sex.


Eminem Is Back… Again (AGAIN).


It seems as if Em has taken the Beyonce route, and randomly released a brand new album titled “Kamikaze” out of the wild blue yonder.  The surprise album is getting a cascading effect of social media reviews a bit late, because no one really knew he was going to put it out.  That being said, there are some surprising tracks on the album including one from the ‘Venom’ movie sound track, but this is definitely one to check out.  Leave any comments you may have about this new release below.  And if you’d like to download it, just click here.

The Crown Casino.


Crown Melbourne (also referred to as Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex) is a casino and resort located on the south bank of the Yarra River, in Melbourne, Australia. Crown Casino is a unit of Crown Limited, and the first casino of the now-international Crown brand.  Initially having opened in 1994 on the north bank of the Yarra, Crown Melbourne relocated and re–opened on the south bank of the Yarra, in 1997. It remains one of the central features of the Southbank precinct of the Melbourne central business district. The entire complex has a space of 510,000 m²—the equivalent to two city blocks—making it the largest casino complex in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. The complex also hosts four hotels, Crown Towers, Crown Promenade, and Crown Metropol, with a fourth hotel approved for construction which is expected to commence in 2018.  See you soon.

Memory Cloth In Real Life.


 

The translucent, lightweight, and malleable properties of textiles have been utilized for centuries in architecture, furniture, and apparel design. It sounds like something that comes of out Batman Begins.  But this is real life, typically, stretching fabric onto rigid structural frames requires complex molding and mechanical methods. The new research from ‘Self Assembly Lab at MIT demonstrates a new method for utilizing textiles that can take advantage of its unique properties while reducing the complexity of forming processes. By printing material in varied layer thicknesses onto stretched textiles they were able to create self-transforming structures that reconfigure into pre-programmed shapes. Programmable textiles open up new possibilities for furniture, product manufacturing, and shipping as well as new methods for self-assembly and user interaction.

Props to the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT + Christophe Guberan + Erik Demaine + David Costanza + Autodesk Inc.
Project Team: Skylar Tibbits, Christophe Guberan, Athina Papadopoulou, Carrie McKnelly, Chris Martin, Filipe Campos, Hannarae Annie Nam

The Athletic Artworks Of Stephanie Lopez.


Recently I came across the fantastical illustrations of artist Stephanie Lopez of Wilmington, CA.  She’s a CSUEB grad who has a passion for basketball (that definitely translates into her work).  Having an extremely detailed, and slightly caricatured style of drawings, the artist better known as “2Craft” and her works tend to reflect athletes from basketball players to boxers.  From famous movies, to great moments in sports to celebrities, her “Michael Tudor-esque” style of art is definitely work checking out further.  Luckily… you can do that right here.

Slice (Official Trailer)


There’s a new horror comedy on the way from A24 and first-time director Austin Vesely, and it looks like it could be a blast.  Slice stars Deadpool 2 standout Zazie Beetz and Chance the Rapper as two survivors of an ongoing pizza delivery massacre in a spooky small town, who set out to catch the culprits. Unfortunatly for them, this leads to a conspiracy involving a ghost, a werewolf, demonic possession and a gateway to hell.  The red band trailer definitely has a nice throwback feel, which is only elevated by the presence of Stranger Things actor Joe Keery in a supporting role. Check it out below along with a poster and let us know what you think in the comments.

Via CMB

Tyga – Swish (Official Video).


Booty booty booty.  The “Swish” video came out quite a while ago, but it still makes me quite happy.  Check the method.

T-Pain Sings Without AutoTune Once Again.


To mark the one-year anniversary of the most popular “Tiny Desk Concert” ever and the 10th anniversary of his debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, they hosted T-Pain at their Washington, D.C. headquarters. The inimitable Floridian performed a short set of classics, both his own and others’, and a brand new, never before heard song from his forthcoming album, Stoicville: The Phoenix.  Check out ‘Change Gon Come’ live, without any Autotune.

The COMB Construct Bench.


It’s difficult to believe that a design as beautiful as this is composed almost entirely of recycled materials. Named after the shape that makes up its two flexible seating points, COMB is constructed from blown out bike inner tubes and plywood leftovers. The bike tubes form the stretchy surface for the honeycomb-shaped sections that sink in to create a comfy, form-fitting seat when one drops down. When they stand, it pops back up to form a planar surface with the rest of the bench again. It’s the softer side of wood seating.

‘Iron Fist’ Officially Suits Up.


The marketing for the second season of Marvel’s Iron Fist has now kicked into high gear, as Danny Rand’s sophomore solo outing is set to hit Netflix early next month.  On the heels of the full trailer and a new poster, Netflix has debuted this banner which features Danny (Finn Jones) wearing his proto-Iron Fist costume. Though many fans would much rather see him jump straight into the classic comic outfit, Matt Murdock went through the same process in season 1 of Daredevil and everything worked out just fine. Granted, his all-black ensemble did look quite a bit cooler than this.

The New Spiderman is… Peter Patterson?


Fans were recently treated to an amazing launch trailer for Marvel and Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man PS4, and now they have an exciting open-world trailer to enjoy.  The latest trailer doesn’t really reveal anything new about the highly anticipated game, but it does live up to its namesake and provides us with an excellent look at the open-world environment, highlighting some of the tasks players can do.  However, even though it doesn’t feature a lot of new gameplay footage, you can hear a fun debate between J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker (Peter Patterson) as they discuss the web-slinger’s impact on the city.  And to top it all off, the spectacular new footage reveals a better look at a few of the iconic Marvel landmarks that will appear in the game, including Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum and Avengers Tower.

Bedrooms By The Tech-Giants?


It’s unlikely that companies like Apple or Facebook will ever foray into designing home interiors, but a little wishful thinking never hurt anybody. In this post we look at conceptual bedrooms, designed with the language and characteristics of 6 of today’s technology giants.  Right above is the conceptual Apple bedroom. Looking like someone cleared out an Apple Store and put a bed in there, there’s something very pure and pristine about the interiors. Undeniably Apple, right? Designed to look sensible and straightforward, the room comes with a white interior, a full sized window (or should we call it a bezel-less window?!), and even trees within glass enclosures. Elaborate, opulent, yet clean.

Right above is the conceptual Apple bedroom. Looking like someone cleared out an Apple Store and put a bed in there, there’s something very pure and pristine about the interiors. Undeniably Apple, right? Designed to look sensible and straightforward, the room comes with a white interior, a full sized window (or should we call it a bezel-less window?!), and even trees within glass enclosures. Elaborate, opulent, yet clean.  Then comes Facebook’s bedroom. Using blue to bring a fun-yet-not-garish vibe to the bedroom, the interiors make use of signature facebook elements, from FB reactions, to neon likes, wallpaper made of personalized messages on the left, to even a literal brick wall on the right that reminds you of the time when you “would write on peoples’ walls” on Facebook. Oh, and I love the cheeky wardrobe in the corner with the grey tees.

Everything about Google’s bedroom screams fun. Using Google’s brand colors and going completely nuts with the decor, the Google bedroom is more fun and vibrant than an environment conducive to sleep. Swing, slide, foosball table, and a literal faux grass playground, you’re much more likely to work from home in the Google bedroom.  The Netflix bedroom takes chilling very seriously. A TV with a home theater, stocked refrigerator, lounge-sofa, and a bed that looks oh-so-inviting, you’re bound to stay in bed and binge-watch your favorite shows. The interiors look quite like a theater with low-key lighting and the use of red gives it the signature Netflix flavor. Points if you notice the colorful lights near the window that do a hat-tip to Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Snapchat’s bedroom perfectly captures the whims and fancies of its young demographic. Ridiculously adolescent, the bedroom comes in Snapchat’s shade of yellow, balloons and streamers everywhere much like Snapchat’s flamboyant filters, and a hammock for a bed. Oh, there’s a photobooth too, given how Snapchat and selfies have such a strong relationship.  Lastly we have Spotify, a company so devoted to music that it makes sense the bedroom echoes that feeling too. With graphiti on the wall that literally screams MUSIC, wall-mounted records, a live-karaoke wall that displays lyrics (with 16 speakers on each side) complete with two microphones, and a light-up dance floor, the Spotify bedroom sets the perfect mood for a bedroom party. Besides, you can turn things down a notch too and bust out some sweet tunes as you head to the circular Spotify-logo-inspired bed.

 

The above 6 bedrooms do a pretty spot-on job (maybe too spot-on) of taking the ethos and characteristics of the 6 tech giants and translating them into spaces… a design exercise by the name of Product Semantics that we’ve covered in great detail in the past. There’s no guarantee that these spaces will ever exist, but it’s a wonderful design practice to familiarize oneself with brand languages, product languages, and learn how you can use them to make products (and in this case, spaces) look like they belong to a certain brand family. Hey designers, could we see a few more? Microsoft, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, for starters?

The ‘Generational Gap’.


Seeing as how my birthday was recently, I’ve been hearing many a story from my childhood today.  But listening to this has brought back memories that only people in my age range would associate with.  Once again, the amazing photographer Mike Campau has captured these images perfectly.

Generation gap.

Images of my childhood, when we…
had to get up to change the channel, collected enough stickers to fill a photo album
(oh, and we had photo albums), video games were for rainy days, used film to capture images, cranked up our boom boxes with homemade mixed tapes, ran around with toy guns that looked like the real thing, and had to “dial” a number.

Virtual Nostalgia (100% CGI)

 

Mean Tweets: Hip Hop Edition.


Music fans can be very vocal with their opinions on Twitter, which is why from time to time we like to give those who are the targets of the haters a chance to respond. Tonight, we’ve done it again in an all-new, all hip-hop edition of #MeanTweets featuring 50 Cent, A$AP Rocky, Eve, Pusha-T, Big Sean, Remy Ma, Rae Sremmurd, Anderson .Paak, DJ Khaled, Trippie Redd, Tyler The Creator, Awkwafina, Logic, Lil Yachty, Wale, Ty Dolla $ign, Yo Gotti, Lil Wayne & T-Pain.

Via DMS

Robots Making Your Coffee?


They say that preparing food requires love and a human touch, but honestly, something as mechanical as making you a cup of coffee could surely be handled by a robot, couldn’t it? Think about the methodical approach to preparing a latte or a cappuccino, and the number of steps that could go wrong because of human error. The CafeX wants to do away with that by introducing robotic arms into the mix. Your coffee order becomes a line of code that the robot follows to the absolute T, and that means three things. A perfect cup every single time, no dealing with chatty baristas, and lastly, not worrying about having your name spelled wrong on the to-go cup.  CafeX’s revolutionary system doesn’t mechanize the coffee machine, but rather, replaces the barista with a capable robot. Enter your order into a kiosk (or even via the app) along with your name and payment details.

The robotic arm maneuvers the coffee machine, picks the glass up and puts your brew together, handling as many as three orders at the same time (working at a dizzying speed of two orders per minute). It can, with a great deal of dexterity, hold, stir, and even transport cups filled with hot liquid without spilling any of it, or burning itself. It then places the cup onto a platform which descends into a chamber that you can then put your hand into and collect the cup of coffee that’s been perfectly brewed to your liking. The biggest advantage? 24×7 coffee shops because you don’t have to worry about human labor. Also, no tips. The disadvantage? Less motivation to go to the coffee shop because the cute barista you were hitting on got replaced with a robotic arm. Although CafeX says there will always be a CafeX human staff-member on site to facilitate this customer-robot interaction.

Via CafeX

‘Beat The Robots’.


The “Beat The Robots” advertising campaign is one that stuns the eye, and captivates the imagination.  As you can see by the photos above, these life-like creations of bionic humanoid creatures is nothing short of incredible. The overall finished designs should be the envy of film makers across the world.

The layouts, intricacies, and especially the textures that are used in the designs, are quite spectacular.  The digital animation required to create these visuals are almost beyond comprehension given the final results, but here are the credits for the amazing pictures.

Agency: Ogilvy HK
CD: Michele Salati
AD/3D: Antoni Tudisco
Animation: Antoni Tudisco, Marco Mori
Typo: PLEID, Vicente Garcia Morillo

Want Some Waterproof Headphones? Talk To xFyro!


It may seem like quite a closely contended match between different earbuds and the companies making them.  Some are compatible with all mobile platforms, others boast of incredible battery lives, and some work as fitness trackers that sit within your ears. Now, the Aria by xFyro, claims to be one of the world’s only truly wireless earphones with an IPx67 waterproof rating.

Let’s understand first what the IPx67 rating actually is. The IP Code, or the Ingress Protection Code determines the ability of a product (usually electronics) to protect itself from intrusion by elements from the outside, especially dust or water. The first digit in the rating determines protection against dust. A rating of 6 usually means the product is completely impervious to dust of all sizes. The second number in the rating determines liquid ingress. The 7 rating in the 67 means the Aria can withstand immersion in water up to 1 meter tested for a period of 30 minutes. The IPx67 rating on the Aria therefore allows it to be used while in the gym (it being impervious to sweat), in the shower, or even while swimming in a pool.

 

Aside from its water and dust resistance, the Aria leverages battery-related advancements over the past few years to provide a stunning 32 hours of playback time. The earbuds themselves work for 8 hours continuously (that’s the equivalent of about 5 movies or more than 160 songs), and the slick, hockey-puck case gives you an additional 24 hours of charging time. The Aria also comes with Bluetooth 5.0, the latest standard that allows for instant pairing by simply bringing the earphones near your smartphone. With crystal quality sound that’s unfettered, the Aria also has a capacitive touch surface that lets you control music playback as well as activate the voice assistant on your phone.

Designed to work across multiple mobile platforms, the Aria is, to frame things accurately, a slight upgrade in all departments. With a significantly better battery, better audio courtesy a 16mm driver (more than thrice as large as the Airpods), better waterproofing, and a universal approach, it may just be the wireless earphones to beat.  Pick some up here.

 

Don’t Be Afraid To Fall. Duckwrth Is Back.


“Fall Back” may be one of Duckwrth’s finest productions yet.  Before I expand, take a listen to the song below.  Duckwrth as successfully don’t a feature with HIMSELF.  Over an aggressive beat produced by ‘Two Fresh Beats”, the song seems as if features multiple artists based on the pitch and tone of his bars.  But his aggressive nature, and smooth tones in the same song are quite unique, It engages the listener in a way that Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Mad City” do as well.